Authorities from the municipal agency of San Pedro Chimaltepec, municipality of San Juan Mazatlán Mixe, violently expelled 30 people, members of seven families, for professing the evangelical faith, reported their defense attorney Porfirio Flores Zúñiga.
He commented that the conflict in this municipal agency began on November 21, 2020, when Mr. Ruperto Domínguez Teodoro was expelled along with his wife, because he did not perform the stewardship of San Pedro in the month of June.
“We file a complaint with the Human Rights Ombudsman for the Peoples of Oaxaca and the State Attorney General’s Office for abuse of authority and those that are set up against the municipal agent.”
He added that, however, on Tuesday, January 4 of this year, they detained three people, Bonifacio Martínez Sánchez, Donato Martínez Sánchez, and Tijerino Hernández Martínez, because they did not organize the December 18 party to the Virgen de la Soledad.
Gelino Hernández Martínez was detained because he defended his son-in-law, but he was released after 48 hours.
He said that Felipe Procopio Domínguez, Pedro Procopio Martínez and Norberto Propocio Martínez, two brothers and his father, were also detained, for which he also reported these cases to the corresponding authorities.
“When the General Secretariat of Government intervened to free the detainees, they were released but to expel them from the community with what they were wearing, in such a way that now they are out of their town and without any recourse to support their families.”
“We are on a powder keg”
Flores Zúñiga pointed out that due to the conflict that the municipal agency is experiencing with the head of the municipality, it has not been possible to request the intervention of the municipal president of San Juan Mazatlán Mixe, Macario Eleuterio Jiménez; therefore, the auxiliary authority cannot be made to see that it is committing serious violations of the human rights of evangelicals.
He said that those expelled had to take refuge in the municipal agency La Nueva Esperanza, in Guevea de Humbolt, where the evangelical pastor Cipriano Gazga Maldonado provides support.
He stated that the regional government delegate in Matías Romero, Martín Hernández Domínguez, affirms that he is doing his best to solve the problem, “but I believe that the state authorities still do not gauge the size of the conflict, they cannot assess that it is a matter in which there could be injured and even dead people; We are on a powder keg and we have not realized it, and it is the entire Oaxacan entity because we are all jointly responsible for this situation; Many people say that it is evangelical problems, yes, but the problem of religious intolerance is that later this transcends and later we will all see each other as enemies ”.
Source: nvinoticias.com
The Oaxaca Post
